Maggie Cheung, Carman Lee, Shirley Cheung & Other Celebs Who Dated ‘Fake Billionaires’
On July 26, Forbes released a scathing article attacking the efforts of Hong Kong businessman Calvin Lo, who’s allegedly been striving for years and years to land a spot on Forbes’ annual list of billionaires.
The lengthy article basically went on a deep dive down Calvin’s reported history and net worth.
Among the many claims the businessman has made throughout the years, including how he owns the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Taiwan and that he invests in the Williams Formula 1 racing team, Forbes refuted them cleanly one after the other.
Juicy, right? But here’s why you’re reading this on the Entertainment section of 8days.sg.
After the article went up, former TVB artiste Shirley Cheung, 48, spoke to the media, revealing that she’s dating Calvin.She also defended his honour against these “false reports” about his wealth.
Shirley quit showbiz in 2001 at the age of 25. She went on to become the youngest CEO of a listed company in Hong Kong when her beauty and slimming company, Sau San Tong, went public in 2003.
Shirley revealed that she’d met Calvin through a mutual friend during the pandemic, before going on to sing the praises of Calvin.
She enthused that the businessman is filial and kind to his daughter from his first marriage, describing him as someone who’s gentle and takes good care of himself.
The couple are also friends with Donnie Yen and Cissy Wang, and were said to have attended Donnie and Cissy’s vow renewal ceremony in Italy together.
As for Forbes’ claim that Calvin is a “fake billionaire”, she said that it was a “public relations disaster”, and that the British PR firm Calvin hired had mishandled the entire issue.
When asked directly about Calvin’s net worth, Shirley did not give a direct answer, and chose to laughingly answer that it doesn’t matter whether his net worth is “10 billion or 1 billion”, and that in her opinion, the lower the number, the better. She also shared that she has never revealed her net worth in the past 20 years.
Now, we’re not in the position to ascertain whether Calvin’s truly a billionaire or if he’s just a millionaire.
But what we can is share this quick recap of other celebs who’ve dated people who’ve falsely exaggerated their wealth.
Monica Chan
The Hong Kong actress, who won the Miss Hong Kong 1989 pageant, reportedly dated ‘King Of Oil’ Chu Ming in 2008.
Chu Ming purportedly made a fortune of over a billion Hong Kong dollars from, well, oil. It was said that the couple planned to tie the knot, and that Monica had entrusted her life savings over to him.
Unfortunately, it was later discovered that Chu Ming was nothing but a con artist. His real name was Chen Jun, and he was declared bankrupt after the 1997 financial crisis.
However, he re-emerged after 10 years with a new identity to woo female stars, and con them of their wealth. He disappeared in 2009 after saddling Monica with a huge debt.
Maggie Cheung
In 1993, Maggie started an ill-fated relationship with real estate mogul Song Xuefei. It was reported that the businessman’s real estate projects had run into financial trouble then.
In an attempt to bail her boyfriend out, Maggie invested over tens of millions in these projects. However, even with her financial help, the projects could not remain afloat and the money she had put in investments were wiped out.
But that’s not all. Song Xuefei went on to dump Maggie for his new squeeze, a wealthy heiress, leaving Maggie without love and cash.
Carman Lee
Even the ‘Most Beautiful Xiao Long Nu’ could not escape from this ‘doomed’ relationship.
Back at the peak of her career, Carman started a relationship with businessman Guo Yingquan, who is 20 years her senior.
At that time, Yingquan was divorced, and his business had failed too. However, Carman stuck by him, with the couple dating for 10 years. It was also reported that she’d dipped into her savings to help Yingquan get over this rough patch.
In 2000, Carman got a rude awakening when she found out that Yingquan had debt collectors knocking at his door.
With Yingquan’s financial situation, Carman was unable to get back any of the money that she’d loaned him. They broke up soon after, with Carman sharing years later that the businessman was really controlling during their time together.
Photos: PBE Media, Carman Lee/Weibo, Sinchew Daily,
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